Perhaps you remember the childhood adage:
Sticks and stones may break my bones
but words will never harm me.
Children quickly learn how untrue that last line can be. Words, especially name-calling, can be devastating and can destroy relationships, even reputations.
Twigs and Stones starts innocently enough, with Lizard suggesting to Snake that they put their names in large letters over the entrance to their hole in the rocks. The two are Friends, sometimes "with a big F, and sometimes the f was quite small."
Snake doesn't see well, so Lizard winds up doing all the work of hoisting twigs and stones to get the letters into place. The two of them admire his work. Not long afterwards, though, a wind blows all the letters down. Lizard replaces them ... but in the dark, he doesn't notice that he's accidentally written "Sneak and Lizard."
This mistake fuels a long train of misunderstanding, resentment, and further name-calling. How can these two get their friendship back on track?
Author Joy Cowley and illustrator Gavin Bishop are two of New Zealand's most beloved children's book writers, with numerous honors between them. Their first book about these characters, Snake and Lizard, received six awards, including New Zealand Children's Book of the Year. This new book is full of action, wit, and an astute understanding of child psychology. We're sure it will be another favorite for four-to-seven-year-old readers, who will be wise enough to understand its nod to the value of kindness.
